Life Updates

We've been bad at keeping this up, partly because of the inconvenience of not having internet and partly because we've been busy.
Pamela and I have really gotten into a rhythm of life that feels so normal even after only a few months. Pamela cooks and I do the dishes. I keep saying I want to gain more confidence and practice cooking though... We're somehow able to eat tasty, cheap, nutritious food for the most part which we're both a little too satisfied about. I've been thinking about food a lot lately but there are so many other people so much more knowledgeable and thoughtful about it than me. Our friend Sarah wrote a blog post about eating organic, local, and vegetarian recently. Here's the link: http://allthingshold.blogspot.com/2009/09/good-better-best.html

Being a volunteer coordinator at two non-profits can be a little tricky for me sometimes but it's been good lately. Work has been a little better at both places than it had been for a while.
I've also been really enjoying not driving. I walk to work when I go to the one right by our house and I ride my bike when I go up north. I'm also very proud of myself for that. I really didn't know anything about bikes a few months ago and I wasn't particularly fit or driven. So, I guess what I'm saying is that it's easier to do than I realized and I really enjoy it.
A few weekends ago Pamela and I visited our friends Katerina and Sarah who live and work on an organic farm a few hours north of us. It was so nice to get away and such a restful weekend.
There's a lot more going on in our lives and my head. I'll try to write about some of it before it builds up too much.
peace,
Michael

Slacktivism and Social Change

I read a very intriguing (and relatively short) article here about the new trend of what has been
"slacktivism"; that is lazy activism that can be done now by simply joining a Facebook group or signing an online petition. Then today one of my favorite columnists, Nicholas Kristof at the Times, wrote a short blog post here on the same topic giving another perspective. This really fascinates me because engines of social change have begun to be one of my top interests. How do we create positive social change? How do we build up community where it is broken? What is the nature of resiliency? How and why do the lower classes develop class consciousness, and why does it seem to happen so rarely? These are some of the questions that I am most eager to explore.

Anyways, this new trend of online slacktivism seems to throw a kink into the way that things have worked in the past and it's hard to tell what will come of it. When I first read this article I immediately felt guilty for the ways that I have participated in slacktivism simply to appease my own conscience. Websites these days make it so easy to write a letter to the CEO of Starbucks, your congressman (or woman), Secretary Clinton, the president of Peru, or whoever. Simply fill out your email address and write your name and you've done your part to fight injustice. Is it really that simple? But what if my motives are pure and I feel deeply outraged about an injustice or possible injustice that there seems to be no other way to address besides sending a generic letter from the comfort of my home?

I would scoff at that if I hadn’t been a part of some positive change brought about by slacktivism. Earlier this year a graduate of Wheaton a few years older than me was living in Egypt. I met this guy one time because he happens to be a very close friend of a close friend of mine. Anyways, when Israel started bombing Palestine to pieces back in December, many Palestinians sought to flee to Egypt, but Egypt closed the border and they were trapped. This guy helped organize a protest against the Egyptian government and was then arrested by secret police and taken to an undisclosed location where he was being interrogated and, for all we knew, tortured. As word got out at Wheaton many students and professors went to the Egyptian embassy in Chicago and protested. I didn't find out about that in time, but I did write letters to everyone I could, including the Egyptian ambassador, my congressman, etc. He was soon released and my friend talked to him on the phone and he told me that his interrogators were surprised at how many American friends he had. After a day or two they even brought it up to him while they were interrogating him. Can you believe that? We raised enough awareness for them to notice it and feel nervous. They had intended to for this to be a secret and we quickly made it clear that it wasn’t and this likely helped lead to their releasing him pretty quickly.

I don't know the answers yet, though I've learned that in our complex world you have to intentionally limit your scope or you'll go crazy. That might be one of the big temptations of slacktivism; to be an “activist” for too many causes to actually effect change in any of them. For me limiting my scope means sticking to what I know, what hits home and what I am just drawn to. There's a whole lot to fight for right in our neighborhood of City Heights, and there are people out there working on all of it; things like keeping our parks safe from crime and cigarette free, increasing access to cheaper, healthier, more natural food for the poor (i.e. food justice), improving our schools, integrating new refugees into our neighborhood, educating undocumented immigrants about their rights and more. Even in my own neighborhood I have to choose what to put more energy into and there are certain issues, people, and places that I am more deeply connected or affected by than others.

But what is more important than picking and choosing my pet issues to join internet groups about is being truly compassionate. A compassionate response seeks solidarity while Slacktivism is too easily lazy and distant. Sometimes it may be the only tangible thing to do, and it can potentially be compassionate, but it requires nothing. Your thoughts?

-Michael

Three Vignettes

One: "What do you call a white girl in city heights?" (Lost).
A couple of weeks ago I was driving home from work. I was in the turn lane to exit onto the street I live on when a nice Muslim man pulled up in a mini-van next to me and asked through the window, "Excuse me, are you a little bit lost?"

Two: You never know what could happen at 9:30 on a Wednesday night.
Last night, at about 9:30, Michael and I were sitting in our bedroom chatting, when we suddenly heard what sounded exactly like a parade going by outside our house. Except we had heard no approach. We jumped up and looked out the livingroom window to discover that there was in fact a nine piece horn ensamble playing full force in the parking lot of the appartment complex across the street, which is home to several dozen Mexican families. A small gathering was standing around the band with all the appearances of a birthday party. Michael threw on a t-shirt and some flip-flops and went across the street to join the party where he was presented with a large, fully in tact but fried, fish. I stayed home but enjoyed listening to the unexpected live music, which lasted for about another half hour, while I did the dishes.

Three: We Felt Like Kings.
Last week, upon discovering that we were actually spending far less money than we had origionally budgeted, we decided to treat ourselves with a trip to Trader Joes. (Normally I confine my shopping to the grocery store in our neighborhood with the best deals in the weekly coupon advertisements.) As we walked around the store I switched my normal shopping mentality from "Do we really need this and is it the best deal I can find?" to "Why not?" Michael would nervously ask, "Do you think these peanuts are a good deal?" "Sure! Get 'em!" I'd respond. "Oh they have that cereal I really like, but I guess we don't really need it" he would say. "Go ahead," I'd tell him. About half way through the shopping trip Michael turns to me with a glowing smile and says, "This is so much fun!" We left there with a small tub of hummus, a box of crackers, three boxes of tea, regular AND decaf coffee, cereal, dried cherries, a bag of peanuts, one tub of organic yogurt, and of course, a $2 bottle of wine. We felt like Kings! Afterward we shared an ice-cream cone from Rite Aide, and I bought a copy of David Copperfield from a used book store. It was so much fun.

Internet has still been down. There was a night last week that I spent working on a long blog post and haven't been able to post it yet. There are also a few specific topics I'm planning to blog about once I get the time. We're still here though and doing great. We're just busy. We're going back to Temecula this weekend for my sister's wedding so it'll be a little while still before we post again. Hopefully internet comes back soon.
peace,
Michael

Internet Out

Our internet hasn't been working well lately. There are a few things I've been meaning to blog about. I'll try to post something tonight.
peace,
Michael

The New Roots Community Farm

This post will be dedicated to a project of the International Rescue Committee here in San Diego (where I work) that is so inspiring and exciting to me that I want everyone to know about it.
First of all, if I haven't mentioned this already, the International Rescue Committee is a refugee resettling agency that has a very big office here in San Diego and also works all over the world. They provide a number of wonderful services for refugees and I work part time there (and part time at another organization) as a Volunteer Coordinator.
Anyways, the project is called the New Roots Community Farm. The IRC has been working for a few years to buy this 2.3 acre plot of land just a 5 minute walk down the hill from our house to create a big urban farm for refugees and other immigrants. Earlier this year they finally got all their permits and got the farm all ready. Then, through 3 different community groups (one for Mexicans and other Central Americans, one for South East Asians, and one for Africans), the 80 plots were given out to families. Over the past few months the farm has really started growing quickly and has been such an amazing positive influence for the refugees and the community of City Heights. I wrote down a list of all the great things I can think of that have come out of this, but I'm sure there's many more.

• A big vacant lot of dirt was transformed into a beautiful, green, life giving space in a neighborhood much in need of that.
  
• The farm has provided a way for refugees coming from agrarian backgrounds to do something productive that they're good at. For example, a Burmese man that my coworker tutors had been sitting depressed at home during the days watching videos on the internet about the war in Burma. Now he works on his plot every day and he's great at it.
  
• This project brings diverse refugees and immigrants together and breaks down stereotypes and encourages commonality. Many of the refugees have negative stereotypes of each other and don't realize how much they have in common. When they work the land together and share tools and spend time together outside they learn how similar they are and about each other.
  
• The farm allows the refugees and immigrants who have plots to supplement their diet with healthy food. The zip code I live in is by far the least healthy in San Diego and it's a big problem because unhealthy food is so much more accessible and cheap. This is a way to combat that.
• The farmers can sell their produce at the City Heights Farmers Market to earn some much needed money and even possibly be given much more land in North County later on if they're serious about farming.
  
• This project educates the community about the important community health and refugee issues.
  
• It encourages community involvement. People volunteer, clubs and churches have been supportive, the neighbors guard the farm and lend their electricity outlets sometimes. These things all better the community of City Heights.
• It will serve to educate the community about gardening and farming since they are just finishing an outdoor classroom and will conduct free gardening classes every Saturday.
• Very soon they will be working to create cooking classes led by refugee women who often are stuck at home and don't feel they have anything to contribute. I'm helping to recruit volunteers to advertise for and coordinate the cooking classes as well as putting together a cookbook filled with native dishes from our diverse refugees.

I've been told that the New Roots Community Farm is the first of its kind and that other IRC offices and other refugee resettling agencies are hoping to imitate it. I hope that they can because it seems to be such a positive thing for refugees and our community.
-Michael

Honeymoon pictures!

At last we got a card reader and were able to access the pictures on our dead camera. They only cover the first half of our honeymoon due to the sneaker wave that killed our camera while were trying to enjoy a sunset... but it's fun to finally have the few pictures that we did get!

The whirl-pool tub and complementary champagne that came with the "romance package" at our hotel in Portland. Thanks mom!

Our first day in Kauai.

Fancy sushi dinner night.

Breakfast on the balcony every morning was maybe our favorite part of the week. Michael made me so many delicious pancakes!
Wiamea Canyon was very impressive but would have been more enjoyable/worth the windy drive if I wasn't too sick to hike or walk around.


At least I wasn't too sick to be adorable...Spouting horn

This is a view from the secret little cove we found by taking a hidden trail that I stumbled across.
We were pretty excited about finding it.

This is a beach that a local waiter told us to go to. Something of a local secret he said, and "the prettiest place on earth to watch a sunset."




Unfortunately the clouds mostly blocked the sunset and a sneaker wave came up and killed our camera a couple minutes after this picture was taken...
And thus, that is the end of the honeymoon pictures.

Prison Injustice

I just read this column by one of my favorite columnists, Nicholas Kristof. I had been reading an ethnography about the prison system here in the States a few months ago and wasn't able to finish it because I was still in college, but the injustice of our criminal justice system has begun to really upset me. If that doesn't speak to everyone, hopefully the economic wastefulness that this column makes apparent at least will.

Getting Started

Alright, well Pamela and I have been meaning to get a blog started for a while now and finally it's getting off the ground. We'll use this blog to share about our lives, jobs, neighborhood, church, recipes, thoughts, etc.
Pamela has blogged a little bit on her blog and she'll tranfer her last few posts over to here tomorrow. We'll both try to regularly use this blog as we live here in City Heights.
-Michael

Recetas Latinas Saludables

A couple weeks ago Michael brought home a little goodie bag that the "foodies" (health and urban agriculture department) at his organization were giving out for free. In this goodie bag was a treasure so wonderful that I must share it with my blog reading friends: A small little cookbook called Recetas Latinas Saludables, or Healthy Latin Recipes Made with Love. It is a collection of recipes published by Champions for Change gathered from Latina women in California which are healthy versions of typical dishes . Though my usual cooking method relies more on reading several internet recepies until I can come up with some combination that uses the ingredients I have on hand than on cookbooks, I have been cooking almost exclusively from this cookbook for the last couple of weeks and am loving it. (as is Michael) The ingredients are mostly inexpensive (especially living this close to the border), the recipes are all very healthy, and the food is DELICIOUS. Our favorites so far were the Sopa de Abondigas (to which I reccomend adding a healthy dose of cilantro) and Mango Black Bean Burritos.

This past week at the farmer's market I came across a second edition from the same group called Soulful Recipes - equally delicious and healthy looking soul food recipes. I can't wait to try it out!

Cooking these recipes not only provides me with delicious and nutritios meals, it was also a fun way to connect with the ethnic groups directly around our home. Now if only they would publish verions for Somali and Vietnamese food I'd be set!

East City Heights

It is cool and overcast in City Heights this morning. Growing up in Oregon I never fully appreciated the wonder of an overcast morning. The cool misty fog spreads a layer of calm over the otherwise baking and busy street that we live on.

As I get up and prepare our ritual oatmeal and coffee this morning, the language I hear spoken outside my windows is Spanish. About every 30 minutes a car drives by blasting some form of Mexican music. Michael and I love this.

If you turn down the block however, you realize this is not merely another Latino neighborhood in San Diego, but something much more strange and interesting. Just around the corner a Vietnamese husband and wife sell an odd assortment of vacuum cleaners, DVD players, and other garage sale items (incidentally this is where I purchased my vacuum and DVD player 2 weeks ago for $20 each, the former of which works great and the later... not so much). Walk another block down and you come upon Buddhist monks in their bright orange robes preparing to serve the daily bread line at their brightly painted temple. Across the street from the temple Somali women draped in richly textured cloths from head to toe carry their groceries on their heads. Or maybe they are coming from the hair salon around the corner which advertises private rooms for Muslim women.

If I were to walk down my street in the other direction I would be greeted by friendly African-American women sitting in plastic chairs in front of their appartments. A young white couple walking down the street would look rather out of place on these blocks. How strange we must have seemed two nights ago playing croquet in our front yard with five of our friends. And yet "strange" takes on a different meaning on Altadena Ave. Everyone seems to take it in stride.

Houses in my neighborhood vary in size and maitenence, though most tend on the smaller side. Some are falling apart with dirt lawns, others have gardens more meticulously maintained than I've seen in the ritziest suburbs (albiet with more practical and productive vegitation). The cars are similarly diverse, from the souped up racers to the ancient camper vans blaring tinny music and plastered with ice-cream labels.

Just three blocks from our house is a large park where Thai women get their morning exercise under the protective shade of an umbrella or large hat, Mexican women burn off calories in swishy pants and long sleeved shirts. I'm probably the only person "working on my tan" in the whole neighborhood.

In this same park we gathered a week ago with our Asain, Latin, and African neighbors for our local National Night Out event. We ate hot-dogs, painted tiles, listened to brief speaches from localrepresentatives and politicians, watched the Asian youth preform impressive breakdancing stunts on the grass, and finally marched around the park chanting "No more violence!" We paused on the edge of this park at the small memorial cross of a young Mexican youth who was gunned down here two years ago. The fervor of our chanting increases as we brandish our candles in his memory and chant "No more violence! No more violence!"

Michael and I LOVE this.

Blogging bug is back

Since beginning my new life in San Diego I have suddenly rediscovered the urge to blog. There are so many new sights and thoughts and things to share about. On the downside, we don't have internet at our house (except for the ocassional 5 minute spurt of catching the one very weak unprotected signal here and there). We are looking at sharing internet with our neighbors however, and if this should happen I believe a new blog may emerge - a joint authorship between my husband and myself. For the time being, and in the spirit of taking advantage of free library internet, I thought an update might be in order.

A lot has happened in the last 2 months (wait, no, 3 months, has it really been 3 months since we graduated?!). So many life changes rolled up into one. Graduating and getting married have already been covered with their own brief picture posts so I will begin the update where the last post left off.

After a fantastic wedding Michael and I spent the night in Portland and then headed to Kauai for a week long honeymoon in his parent's time share on the island. I so wish I had pictures of this beautiful week to share with you all, but alas our camera was caught by a sneaker wave and killed and we haven't been able to acess the pictures from it yet.

Next came a week long stay at my parents house where my sister, adorable nephew, brother, and brother-in-law were all present. It was again, a terrific week, beautiful to spend this time with my nearest and dearest. I treasured every moment with my nephew and sister. It was sad to leave.

But leave we did, our little green echo packed to the gills, ready to start our new Californian life. Despite a certain aversion to California that I think all Oregonians might be genetically endowed with, I knew the Lord was calling us to San Diego, and it was exciting to see what this new chapter held. We drove through the incredible Redwoods, along the coast, and finally though the desolate Central Valley before landing in Temecula, at Michael's parent's house.

We arrived in So Cal just 2 days before Michael's new job began. This time held a bit of anxiety as it involved: frantically looking for a job, Michael commuting into San Diego most days (though it's only an hour, not too bad) and us spending the night at our friend's Chaz and Rebeccas 1 or 2 nights a week. We never knew from one week to the next where we would be living or what I would be doing. It was like someone pressed the pause button right at the most suspenseful part of the movie...

...And then they hit play and everything whirred back into lightning speed. The commuting lasted about three weeks before we had an opportunity to house sit just South of the city. On the same day that the house sitting option became available I was called in for an interview. The next day I was hired. The job is not exactly what I had in mind, but I hear that finding exactly what one had in mind is quite rare. The funny part is that this job is the exact same job that Michael has - volunteer coordinating for a refugee resettlement organization through Americorps funding. (Only I'm a Vista and he's a State and National VIP, which means nothing to anyone unless they've done americorps).
My job has not started yet. I was origionally told it would start mid August, but due to annoying funding issues I won't start until the end of August.

The day I was hired for this job I switched my Craigslist search from job postings to appartment postings. There sitting in the ads was our ideal home at our ideal rental price. We went out to look at it the next day and signed the contract on the spot.
It is the most adorable little one bedroom duplex with a real life yard all to ourselves! I was hoping to post pictures here today, but I grabbed the wrong cord on the way out the door, so they are trapped inside my camera. The yard and cuteness of our home are only icing on the cake, however, in comparison to the incredible neighborhood we are in and the proximity of the house to both of our jobs (well, one of Michael's anyway, as he splits his time between two).
The nieghborhood is called City Heights, it is the neighborhood where most refugees who come into the city resettle and also has a very high Latino population. We have heard that it is supposed to be one of the more run down and "dangerous" neighborhoods in the city, however, so far I've found nothing but love for this incredibly diverse and beautiful community. I have so much more to say about it, that will have to be a post of it's own.

So that's where we are now, and life is rolling by. I suppose it feels a little like someone hit pause again as I wait for my job to start, but it's more of an intermission. Time to refocus and come back to earth before launching off again. Michael is enjoying his job. I'm getting the house all in order. We're involved with a great little Christian "intentional community" a couple neighborhoods away, and slowly but surely we're getting to know our neighbors.

And that is enough detail for one library session.
love,
Pamela

Get Married: Check

More photos to follow soon.

P.S. I almost forgot, the rest of the photos can be viewed here: http://www.pictage.com/675142

Graduate College. Check.

Sorry guys. I would give captions, but blogger is is being too difficult. Maybe later...





































































































































































(The bridge where he proposed)